Tokyo's Mori Art Museum Features an AI Art Installment Utilizing Work from Kahlert School of Computing Faculty
In the bustling Roppongi district in Tokyo's Minato ward lives the Mori Art Museum, a contemporary art space nestled in the 54-story Roppongi Hills Mori Tower.
A recent exhibit at Mori Art Museum entitled "MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art" contained approximately 50 works of contemporary art utilizing game engines, AI, and virtual reality (VR). Among the works exhibited was German American artist Diemut Strebe's "El Turco/Living Theater", featuring code written by Kahlert School of Computing Assistant Professor Ben Greenman.
The piece presents two character puppets on screen. The puppets speak out loud as their lips move in sync, and their words appear on screen like a chat history. One puppet portrays an inventor of smart home devices being interviewed by the other puppet. However, the course of the conversation can change, and each performance is unique.
One puppet is controlled by a human. Another puppet is controlled by Anthropic’s Claude AI. The audience is faced with a challenge: which puppet is AI, the inventor or the interviewer? Does it matter?
Behind the scenes, this project combines several technologies: including Claude API, Azure text to speech, Amazon speech to text, and Unreal Audio to Face. The piece uses the Racket programming language, developed by Kahlert School Professor Matthew Flatt, to synchronize these different technologies in an event-based framework. For example, Audio to Face can sleep until Claude has written the next part of its puppet's script.
Select performances of "El Turco/Living Theater" are available on the artist's YouTube channel.
Greenman would like to extend a special thanks to Varun Shankar for providing access to a machine for software development.
Goldman Sachs: Leadership and Economic Insights with Rob Kaplan - March 24
Event Information
March 24, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Rick and Marian Warner Auditorium in the Robert H. and Katharine B. Garff Building
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Join Goldman Sachs on Monday, March 24 to hear unique insights on leadership and the economy from Rob Kaplan - Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs and former CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Goldman Sachs is where exceptional people build extraordinary careers. We hire people with diverse skill sets, interests, and backgrounds - and we provide them with the hands-on experience to business challenges and opportunities to learn firsthand from the very best.
Register through the University of Utah Handshake page here.
Distinguished Discussion Series with Don Norman—Thursday, February 27
Join us Thursday, February 27, in the Kennecott Mechanical Engineering Building (MEK) 3550 at 5:30 PM for our Distinguished Discussion Series with Don Norman.
Don Norman was the Founding Director of the Design Lab and Founding Chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Association of Arts and Science, and the former Vice President of Apple. He has published 21 books translated into 20 languages, including Emotional Design and Design of Everyday Things. His latest book is Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered. The book compelled him to move from writing to actually doing something. His charity, The Don Norman Design Award, rewards early career practitioners who practice what he preaches.
This is a discussion and not a lecture. Don will answer questions raised by the audience in this session. The discussion is open to the public.
If you'd like to meet Don, please add your name to the document here.
Kabir Kazi Sinthia
Kazi Sinthia Kabir
kskabir@cs.utah.edu
MEB 3462
Website | Google Scholar
Research Interests
Human Centered Computing; Personal Informatics
Advisor
Mary Hall